Architecture in the United States. 1 1 



apprehend to be the following. We are to regard the largest hail 

 stone as commencing its formation with a small nucleus, and as re- 

 ceiving continual accessions of matter in descending, until it reaches 

 the ground. But the watery vapor of which these accessions are 

 composed, is matter at rest to be put in motion by the falling body, 

 which is therefore taking on a new load at every stage of its progress, 

 and consequently has its speed continually retarded. The velocity 

 which it acquires in falling each successive moment, is lost by com- 

 municating motion to so large a quantity of matter at rest, as that 

 which composes its accretions. 



Art. II. — Architecture in the United States. 



Having discussed the position and the planning of cities, we now 

 come to the filling up — the part to which architecture applies in the 

 true and proper sense of the term. 



I propose in this article to give a brief history of the art, together 

 with its character as it presents itself in the edifices of different ages, 

 and thus, by putting the reader in possession of facts, to enable him 

 to draw conclusions for himself. We shall then endeavor to see why 

 the Greeks succeeded, why the Romans failed, and why modern 

 Europe has failed still more than the Romans. From the whole we 

 shall attempt to ascertain our own chanCes of failure, and if possi- 

 ble, the best way to success. 



Architecture was at first only an improvement on the necessities 

 of man, but as man became more refined and more wealthy, its 

 character rose also, until, at last, it took rules and forms and propor- 

 tions and became an art. The earliest exhibitions of it now remain- 

 ing are in the monuments of Egypt, where it appears massive, hea- 

 vy, simple, and sometimes with a glimmering of good taste. Persia 

 and India contend with Egypt for the precedency, but the architec- 

 ture of Persia was light, and that of India highly labored, both evincing 

 a greater advancement in the art : at the same time, the resemblance 

 in all is so great as to shew that whichever was first, it gave to the 

 others their ideas on the subject. From Egypt, the art passed into 

 Greece, where, after accommodating itself to the modes of building 

 in use there, it soon passed into symmetry and grace and beauty, 

 that have never since been equalled, and on which we now look as 



